[giraffe_lady]

I don't think the argument that "we have a lot of records of this behavior so it was normal" is persuasive, for the reason that our records aren't an even slice of history. We have much much more record of what rich people did and were affected by, and much less about everyone else.

It may have been, probably was, normal for wealthy people to subject themselves to this sort of treatment. But I think the majority of people would have seen a local barber, midwife, or healer, who had different traditions that may not have been more effective but seemed to have generally favored less invasive interventions. The majority of people probably just sat at home and hoped for the best, which likely had better outcomes than what the rich were paying doctors to do to them.